"He's the real deal": Adrian Newey ranks Max Verstappen among other great F1 drivers

Legendary F1 designer and Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has ranked newly-crowned F1 world champion Max Verstappen among the greatest drivers he has ever worked with.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 pundit and former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg, Newey said:

“I think you go across different periods, he's the real deal. I mean, yes, he's aggressive but I think generally he's very fair. He's got such talent, such drive and he’s still so young. He's on a steep learning curve still. He's just amazing. And the best thing about him is that he is just so easy to work with. There's no pretension; he just comes in, and gets on with it. I love the guy. He’s amazing.”

Max Verstappen became the fourth-youngest world champion in F1 history after narrowly beating Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The dramatic season finale saw a Safety Car intervention which ended up favoring Red Bull and Verstappen. The team took the opportunity to pit their driver for fresh soft tires, which enabled him to overtake Hamilton on the final lap of the race.

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Adrian Newey feels Max Verstappen’s luck balanced itself out at the end

Despite taking pole with a stunning lap, Max Verstappen got bogged down at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after experiencing “too much wheel-spin”, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

With Hamilton driving off into the distance after the controversial lap one move, it looked as if Max Verstappen’s bid for a maiden world championship would come up short. Despite being on the faster soft tires, Verstappen struggled to match Lewis Hamilton’s pace early in the going.

However, a bit of assistance from teammate Sergio Perez in holding up Hamilton, along with a timely Safety Car intervention, allowed Max Verstappen to pip the Briton to the title on the final lap of the race.

While the Safety Car intervention certainly helped Verstappen, Newey thinks his driver's luck has balanced out after a string of unlucky incidents throughout the season.

“Obviously, in the laps before the Safety Car, it all looked as if it was slipping away from us, and we kind of started thinking about the year and what we could have done, some unlucky moments; Copse (crash at Silverstone) in particular, which personally still really grinds me, what happened there. And then the Safety Car happened. Obviously, we got lucky in that sense. There are no two ways about it. But I reflect and of course, I’m biased, I know, but I think Max thoroughly deserved it. It all balanced out in the end.”

Both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen put in stellar performances throughout the 2021 season to arrive at the season finale tied on points.

A late surge in form from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in recent races threatened Red Bull and Verstappen’s title bid. Furthermore, a string of unlucky incidents for Max Verstappen throughout the season, particularly in Azerbaijan and Hungary, lost him crucial points in the championship. However, they continued to put in consistent performances throughout the year to stay in the hunt.